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Above: Henri
Matisse, Jazz, 1947
Below: Filippo Marinetti, Mountains
+ Valleys + Streets x Joffre, 1915
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The 20th century
During the first half of the 20th century many other
artists from various mediums were drawn to the book format. Their
purpose was not to explore the structural, typographic or conceptual
possibilities of the book, but rather the book became another venue
for the presentation of their work, usually painting, drawing or
sculpture. These books are now referred to in several different
ways: livres de peintre, livres d'artiste or illustrated books.
Unfortunately the most common usage is livres d'artiste, which has
caused a great deal of confusion as it translates to artists books.
They are a very different genre than artists books. I agree with
Johanna Drucker, author of The Century of Artists' Books,that
they fall short of the criteria of artists books because these books
were usually conceived by editors or entrepreneurs and existed for
the reason of publishing deluxe editions of popular artists (Picasso,
Matisse, Miro, etc) to expand the market for painting, drawing and
sculpture. Many are also very standard in their format, with mechanical
alteration of text on the left and image on the right. While many
"livres d'artiste are interesting on their own terms, they are productions
rather that creations, products rather than visions, examples of
a form, not interrogations of its conceptual or formal or metaphysical
potential."25 There are of course exceptions, but these
statements represent the majority of the livres d'artiste.
Book arts, like most mediums,
had many influences that came under the heading of modern art, during
these early years of 1910-1950: Cubism, Dada, Futurists, Bauhaus,
Surrealism, Postmodernism, Fluxus, Conceptualism and Performance
Art. Each movement had some component of the artists book attached
to it.26
Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944)
is one of the Italian Futurists that had an impact on the future
of book arts. Like the Futurist painters, his poetry and book work
expressed modern life. His typography shows the influence of Mallarmé
in expressiveness, but he took this idea further and abandons traditional
grammar, syntax, punctuation and format, creating a vivid, "pictorial
typographic page."
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